Reset or Change Microsoft Office Accounting 2008 Product Key

Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2008 is a free accounting software which can be upgraded to a more feature rich and full feature complete Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2008. Users can also download and request a free product key to use MOA Professional 2008 as a trial or evaluation for 60 days. The Professional and Express editions are essentially the same installation which its functions accessible to users are determined by the product key used.

However, at the end of the trial period, Office Accounting 2008 will force users activate and register the software online or by phone without a chance to change or reset the trial product key to newly purchased licensed serial product key, or in the case of deciding not to buy, to downgrade and revert back to Office Accounting 2008 Express version, which supposedly to be always free of charge.

With the old product key used for activating, the results are always rejected and forced to quite due to invalid or expired key, rendering users unable to use the Office Accounting 2008, and even the free Express edition. As the same configuration is used for both OA 2008 Professional and Express, uninstall and reinstall downloaded Express setup installer does not help. The program will still picks up existing used product key and attempt to activate with it without prompting users to change key or option to downgrade to Express edition. The similar situation also applies to users who use illegal Professional edition product key leaked on the web or downloaded from BitTorrent, eD2K or other warez and crack sites.

The workaround is to reset the product key of Microsoft Office Accounting 2008 entered, and then re-enter a new product key, or in the case to revert to use the free Express version, use the default Express product key supplied in the first time usage activation wizard.

To reset the product key, firstly uninstall the Microsoft Office Accounting 2008 Express or Professional that is currently installed. Uninstallation can be done from “Add and Remove Programs” (XP) or “Uninstall a program” (Vista) in Control Panel.

Then, open Windows Explorer, ensure that Folder Options’ View configuration (under Tools menu in XP or Organize menu in Vista) has set to allows users to view hidden files and folders. Then navigate to the following path:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Office Accounting\3.0\ (for Windows Vista)
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Office Accounting\3.0\ (for Windows XP0

Delete the pa.dat inside the directory.

After deleting the “pa.dat” which stores product key, activation and registration information, reinstall Microsoft Office Accounting 2008 Express or Professional. On first run, the activation and registration wizard will run, providing the default free product key for Express edition. If you have bought a license for Professional edition, enter accordingly.


This entry was posted on Thursday, December 27th, 2007 at 11:15 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 Responses to “Reset or Change Microsoft Office Accounting 2008 Product Key”

  1. wub
    March 2nd, 2009 16:09
    9

    @ Alma-it was easy to delete the pa.dat file, put a new.txt file in the same folder and then rename it to pa.dat.

    When I opened the program again it took the same 60-day trial password.

    Do not choose the option to ‘revert to the free version and downgrade your data’ as your files that were shared in multi-user environments would no longer be accessible outside of this one machine.

    You know guys it’s a pretty cheap buy. I did this because I bought the program and it’s in the mail but my trial expired this weekend and I need to get to my data. I run this on WHS with a tie into the BCM database.

    The good news is that whatever license you own, Microsoft is fighting for market share and wants you to use their product. Your 2007 or 2008 Accounting License allows you a free upgrade to Version 2009. If you own any qualifying product the Upgrade Version is only $35 through trusted vendors. That’s quite a good deal for a multi-user accounting program that ties in with BCM/Office…

    I do feel right getting my mileage out of the trial version but I don’t mind buying one license for the WHS, plus one license for a Desktop/Notebook pair. No way it’s worth $200 but for $35 I don’t mind.

  2. john
    February 1st, 2009 22:32
    8

    or if you just go to the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Office Accounting\3.0\ go to pa.dat file and simply select and delete all info and save your account 2008 will automatically reset to 25 uses, you could just keep doing this.

  3. Yomisma
    November 3rd, 2008 04:34
    7

    alguien me puede ayudar para poder
    encon trar la clave para microsoft 2007
    por que se me ha bloqueado..

    GRACIASS!

  4. Erik
    August 1st, 2008 05:23
    6

    To create an empty ‘pa.dat’ file explore to the folder mentioned, right click and select New -> Text document.

    Then rename the text document to ‘pa.dat’.

  5. How to resolve issues with Office 2007 activation | The TIW Blog
    July 3rd, 2008 10:19
    5

    [...] Reset or Change Microsoft Office Accounting 2008 Product Key [...]

  6. Alma
    May 4th, 2008 23:06
    4

    Pls tell me how to create an empty “pa.bat” File???? Reinstalling is a pain in the butt

  7. Vadim
    February 29th, 2008 20:51
    3

    To avoid reinstalling Microsoft Office Accounting 2008 one could create empty “pa.dat” after deleting the original file. On subsequent run, the activation and registration wizard will run.

  8. Enrique
    February 14th, 2008 06:14
    2

    Good way of solving this problem. Thanks for these comments.

  9. peter
    February 10th, 2008 11:25
    1

    With the old product key used for activating, the results are always rejected and forced to quite due to invalid or expired key, rendering users unable to use the Office Accounting 2008, and even the free Express edition. As the same configuration is used for both OA 2008 Professional

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